La storia navale nell’Italia di vent’anni fa di Brian R. Sullivan Uno studio del 1994 per il Naval War College di Newport La storia navale nell’Italia di vent’anni fa Di Brian R. Sullivan 1 Within the Italian university system, the teaching of naval and maritime history has been limited recently to only two schools, the Uni- versities of Pisa and Rome, and to two scholars, the highly respected Mariano Gabriele and his student, Alberto Santoni. For many years earlier in this century, the University of Rome had a chair in naval history and policy, held by the il- lustrious expert on World War I at sea, Camillo Manfroni (1863-1935) 2. After the Second World War, Manfroni was effectively succeed- ed by Gabriele. However, since Gabriele was and remains a civil servant in the Ministry of Finance, he has been for- bidden under Italian law from being an official professor at the Universi- ty of Rome and has been only an incaricato (adjunct). Since such a posi- tion within the Italian university system has been abolished recently, it is now legally impossible for Gabriele to go on teaching at the University of Rome. Barring the unexpected, when Santoni eventually retires from the University of Pisa, the teaching of naval and maritime history may well cease there. In fact, officially, Santoni holds a chair in military histo- ry and technology and will probably be succeeded by a scholar of land warfare. The situation within the Italian Navy educational system is slightly bet- ter. The Italian Naval Academy at Livorno offers a three-year course in naval history and policy taught by Commander Pier Paolo Ramoino. In 1 B. R. Sullivan, “Twentieth Century Italy”, in J. B. Hattendorf (Ed.), Ubi sumus? The State of Naval and Maritime History , Naval War College, Newport, R. I., 1994, pp. 180-189. Testo in pubblicò dominio. Per gentile concessione del Naval War College. 2 Manfroni's most significant published works include La marina militate durante la guerra mondiale (Bologna: 1923); I nostri alleati navali (Milan, 1927); Storia della Marina italiana durante la guerra mondiale 1915-1918 (Bologna: 1933). effect, Ramoino has attempted to carry on the work initiated by Camillo Manfroni at the University of Rome. In this effort Ramoino collaborates closely with Alberto Santoni, aided by the proximity of the Livorno Academy and the University of Pisa. Ramoino is attempting to expand his course to four years. However, most of the subject matter covered by Ramoino involves the naval and maritime history of other countries, ra- ther than of Italy. The Istituto di Guerra Marittima (1922), also located on the grounds of the Italian Naval Academy, is roughly equivalent in purpose and functioning to the U.S. Naval War College. That is, the Istituto di Guerra Marittima offers both a junior and senior course, corresponding to the command and staff college level and the war college level. For these courses, Com- mander Ramoino teaches a one-year course in naval strategy and history, with somewhat greater emphasis on Italian matters than is the case for his courses at the Naval Academy. However, the stress on the above-mentioned course at the Istituto di Guerra Marittima is on naval strategy, rather than history. Ramoino has succeeded in getting a number of prominent Italian military and naval historians to give guest lectures at the Italian Naval War College and to expand the teaching of Italian naval history there. However, given the politically sensitive nature of many as- pects of Italian naval history, Ramoino has encountered difficulties. In fact, many of his students seem to have a greater knowledge of the naval history of Britain or the United States than of their own country. The schools of the Italian Army and Air Force largely ignore naval his- tory, whether that of Italy or of other nations. The two-year Italian Mili- tary Academy at Modena has abolished the teaching of the history of ground, sea, or air warfare. When the graduates of the academy at Modena pass on to the two-year Scuola di Applicazione at Turin, they receive a one-year course in mili- tary history that includes a modest naval component. However, this is limited to such points as a passing mention of the battles of Trafalgar, Jutland, or Midway. The Italian Army War College (Scuola di Guerra) at Civitavecchia offers a one-year course in military history. Naval history is covered by an annual conference with lectures by a few naval officers. Neither the Italian Air Force Academy nor the Italian Air War College offers any naval history whatsoever. Italy has no equivalent of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, alt- hough it does have a number of government high school-level vocational schools for mariners. The University of Naples offers a program in mari- time studies that provides roughly the type of education available in the United States from Kings Point. However, in none of these schools is Italian maritime history taught, except for passing references. In pleasant contrast to the state of the teaching of naval history is the status of Italian Navy official history. Such history falls under the juris- diction of the Ufficio Storico della Marina Militare (USMM). The ar- chives and publication service of the USMM are located in Rome, at pre- sent under the able direction of Admiral Renato Sicurezza. The Navy historical archives are undoubtedly the best organized and most accessible of the three Italian services. They are devoted to the his- tory of the Italian Navy since the amalgamation of the Sardinian and Ne- apolitan Navies in 1861, obviously covering only the age of steam. Uti- lizing teams of professional archivists and historians, the USMM direc- torate is completely reorganizing the archive and creating comprehensive finding aids as it progresses through its huge collection of documents. The USMM staff is extremely knowledgeable and very helpful. Probably the only serious criticism that one can make of the USMM archive is its lack of adequate photocopying services. Two other archives in Rome also contain much material relevant to Italian naval and maritime history. The Archivio Centrale dello Stato in the EUR suburb holds the records of the Naval Ministry, the Merchant Marine Ministry, and also the records of cabinet discussions that some- times touched on naval matters, Air Ministry records from the Fascist pe- riod that occasionally deal with relations with the Navy, and records of the Fascist-era Ministry of Communications that controlled ports and the merchant marine. The archives of the Foreign Ministry are located sepa- rately in the Foreign Ministry office and contain diplomatic records of naval and disarmament conferences. Both these archives are quite well ordered and researchers can have access to good finding aids 3. However, those using such archives must be prepared to deal with the frustrating prac- tices of the Italian bureaucracy, especially those of its lowliest members. The publica- tions of the USMM are generally well re- searched and of high quality, although they are devoted almost exclusively to technical and narrative questions. The single most im- pressive of the USMM publications remains its excellent twenty-three-volume history of the Italian Navy in World War II, La marina italiana nella Seconda Guerra Mondiale , pub- lished between 1950 and 1988 (including revi- sions of earlier volumes) . The value of this massive work lies in its ob- jectivity, accuracy, thoroughness and honesty of self-appraisal. It stands in striking contrast to the Navy's eight-volume official history of World War I (published under the heavy hand of Fascist censorship in 1935— 42), to the Italian Army's official history of its operations and activities in World War II—-the earlier volumes of which fall so short of historical objectivity that newer volumes are being produced to supersede the old- er—and to the Italian Air Force historical effort, which has never even issued an official history of the 1940—45 period that it has been willing to publish. Much of the credit for the success of the Italian Navy's official history of World War II should go to Admiral Giuseppe Fioravanzo, the director of the USMM at the time of its publication. Admiral Fioravanzo was himself the author of a number of the twenty-three volumes and ensured the adherence of the entire project to the high standards that he laid down. Fioravanzo was ably assisted in the project by its other authors, notably Carlo De Risio, Aldo Cocchia, and P. F. Lupinacci. It is a pleas- ure to note that Admiral Sicurezza has restored the USMM to that same high level of performance. 3 For the records of the naval and merchant marine ministries, see Guida generate degli Archivi di Stato Italiani (Rome: 1981), vol. 1, pp. 179-93. Admiral Sicurezza is also president of the Commissione Italiana di Storia Militare, which is in the process of publishing a series of volumes entitled L'Italia in Guerra , on the history of Italy in the Second World War. These volumes, one for each year of Italian participation in the con- flict, are resulting from annual conferences that began to be held in 1990. Each volume explores topics of considerable depth and breadth, going beyond the operations of the three services to include strategy, diploma- cy, civil-military relations, propaganda, industrial production, weapons design and procurement, intelligence, logistics and German-Italian rela- tions. It is to be hoped that such an approach to offi- cial history will be reflected in future USMM pub- lications in general. For too long even its best pub- lications have been rather narrowly focussed.